1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and devices for dispensing gumballs. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and mechanisms for use in devices that incorporate the dispensing of a gumball with a series of entertaining kinetic activities.
2. The Prior Art
Devices for dispensing gumballs have long been available. Coin-operated devices to dispense one of a number of colored, spherical gumballs collected in a transparent hopper are located in stores and businesses around the country. In addition, similar devices dispense other types of candy or small toys. More particularly, there have also been coin-operated devices designed to dispense candy or toys in conjunction with a series of entertaining kinetic activities, in the spirit of Rube Goldberg. A kinetic activity involves the substantially controlled motion of a candy or toy to be dispensed via creative mechanisms and routes.
Devices employing a series of entertaining kinetic activities and used to specifically dispense gumballs (hereinafter kinetic-activity gumball dispensers) have been available for public use for at least four years. Prior art kinetic-activity gumball dispensers have all attempted to provide an entertaining series of kinetic activities, wherein a gumball is guided from mechanism to mechanism along a substantially controlled route and eventually dispensed to a customer.
However, prior art kinetic-activity gumball dispensers have been subject to a number of difficulties. One critical key to a gumball s successful navigation of a particular kinetic-activity route has been the degree of sphericity that the gumball possesses, i.e., its roundness. The motion of a truly spherical gumball is fairly predictable, and its motion can be accounted for in the design and operation of a kinetic-activity gumball dispenser. However, the majority of conventional gumballs, as supplied by manufacturers and distributors, are not perfectly spherical, instead having indentations and other defects. In fact, some gumballs are so severely deformed as to be unrecognizable as spheres, but are instead tooth-shaped. Such deformations cause conventional kinetic-activity gumball dispensers to perform improperly, lock up, or even damage internal mechanisms.
Suppliers of conventional kinetic-activity gumball dispensers have attempted to solve this problem by instructing personnel who fill the gumball hopper of a kinetic-activity gumball dispenser to sort out gumballs that appear to be defective. However, such personnel rarely do so. It is difficult to detect all of the defective gumballs in a given batch, both because of the sheer number of gumballs to be inspected and the difficulty in predicting how serious a defect must be before it should be removed. Moreover, a kinetic-activity gumball dispenser is much less attractive to a store or business when gumballs must be inspected, instead of simply poured in the hopper.
Another approach has been to install a mechanism that automatically checks the sphericity of each gumball as it presents itself for dispensing and that discards any gumballs that fail to meet specific sphericity requirements. However, this makes the device substantially more complex and more expensive because measuring sphericity is difficult. Moreover, this approach requires the designer to know exactly how spherical a gumball must be to successfully navigate the particular kinetic-activity route. It is difficult to translate functional requirements for a gumball into quantitative geometric requirements.
Thus, it can be seen that what is needed in the art are methods and mechanisms that overcome the long-felt difficulties presented to kinetic-activity gumball dispensers by the inherent defects in gumball sphericity.
Another pressing need in the art is for new, reliable, and creative mechanisms for use along the substantially controlled route of a kinetic-activity gumball dispenser. A great deal of the appeal of a kinetic-activity gumball dispenser lies in its uniqueness and in the curiosity it evokes in onlookers as it operates. In turn, it is the presence of new and creative mechanisms along the substantially controlled route of a kinetic-activity gumball dispenser that gives the dispenser its uniqueness. Thus, after a given mechanism has been included in kinetic-activity gumball dispensers for several years, the curiosity it evokes in onlookers can be significantly diminished, and a new, more creative mechanism must be substituted in its place.
Moreover, new mechanisms are also difficult to come by since they must be reliable. In order to place a given mechanism along the substantially controlled route of a kinetic gumball dispenser, the mechanism must be able to account for the variability in motion of any given gumball. As discussed above, to account for such variability in the design and operation of a mechanism is difficult, given the variability in sphericity and other qualities of gumballs.
Thus, it can be seen that what is needed in the art are new, creative, and reliable devices for use along the substantially controlled route of kinetic-activity gumball dispensers.